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Harp 2.0 is Heating Up!

We all have been waiting a long time for HARP 2.0: but when it got here, nobody was ready! Our government kept promising this mortgage refinance program, while none of the traditional banking channels seemed ready. Wells Fargo said they might be ready come April 23rd; Chase has made no announcement of their rollout. Flagstar was the first to show any type of life, but digging a little deeper we found that they were primarily looking to help their existing customers by offering more aggressive guidelines (diifferent guidelines for different servicers).

Finally this week we saw some good signs, where one of my favorite banks started accepting all customers from all servicers with loan to values over 125% . They also stated that they will accept feedbacks of Approve Eligible, Expanded Approval Level I, Expanded Approval level II and Expanded Approval Level III. (Pricing does vary with each level of approval.)

Every mortgage in today's lending world is run through automated underwriting. We receive our feedback and we also get a detailed description of what is needed in order to process the file correctly. With the Harp 2.0, we see in the findings whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac accepts the value submitted for the property. This is where we can look and check to see if we received an appraisal waiver, which saves the customer time and money.

The Harp 2.0 is a great loan for customers who want to lower their payment or lower their term. Our government has provided a refinance option for customers who put down that 20% for a Fannie Mae loan 4-5 years ago and saw their equity disappear. Good news America: this loan could help our recovery in a big way.